The Xbox app for Windows 10 is now a ‘console companion’

Microsoft is continuing to build on its promise to improve its services for gamers. Last year, it vowed to improve its Microsoft Store and last month unveiled a powerful new take on the Xbox Game Bar. Now its taking stock of its Xbox-branded services on PC. The official Xbox app for Windows, which used to include Xbox Live chat, an activity feed and more, will soon become a slimmer, more lightweight "Console Companion." For now, that just means a name change, though in a previous message Microsoft also teased a new "desktop experience."

While Microsoft hasn't been explicit in what exactly this will mean for the app, it does seem likely that social features such as messaging and party chat will move into the Game Bar. Microsoft has become increasingly cloud-focused in recent times, so this move would certainly speed up its gaming services and give gamers more of a reason to stick with Microsoft's eco-system -- and perhaps even eventually sign up to its game-streaming platform, Project xCloud.